I bake, therefore I am

Bake Off is BACK!!!

Bake off is back people! Now, like most of you I’m sure, I had my reservations. It’s a big change, Mel, Sue and Mar-Ber gone, surely it could only be a disaster. But I’m going to be honest with you, I didn’t hate it, in fact I kinda liked it. I think my love for Noel helped this, I mean how can you not love him. He is adorable!

Back to the baking though, I mean that’s what you’re here for.

Cake week. What a way to start it off: fruity cakes, mini rolls (peppermint?!) and illusion cakes. What a way to kick it off, nothing like easing the contestants in gently. I love to bake. I enjoy playing about with new flavours and being challenged to create new things, but I couldn’t do any of that under the pressure that those baking babes face in that tent!

I’m rather cursed lucky to have family and friends that continue to push me in all my bakes. My mum text me during the first episode telling me the illusion cakes were right up my street, and she’s not wrong. I have made 5 illusion cakes in the past 2 years and although these can be a somewhat stressful experience, creating something that looks like something else is an amazing feat!

An illusion cake is creating something that doesn’t look like cake but still tastes like cake and makes people go ‘wow’! The ‘Cat in the Hat’ cake was my first attempt at making an illusion cake and my first go using my airbrush. My airbrush also made an appearance for the pineapple cake and my absolute favourite, my burger! I’ve also made a suitcake, I mean case, for a 60th birthday party and a brain cake for my Halloween bash (keep an eye out for more on this…).

It felt like cheating though to put forward my previous bakes for this years #Bakealong so I had to have a go at creating something!I must admit the peppermint in the mini rolls really put me off and the glut of cooking apples I received before bake off may have swung my decision.

My apple cake, although not the prettiest bake I have ever created, goes up there with one of my best bakes (based on the opinions of my work colleagues). An apple bake using this recipe (I left out the pecans), covered in my trusty Italian meringue buttercream. I decided to add some stewed apples (water, sugar, apples and cinnamon) to the middle and some lovely crumb (baked in the oven and now sitting in a jar that I may or may not be dipping into every now and then) to top it off. I will admit there was meant to be a lovely caramel drip smothering this beauty but I tried to do too many things and managed to burn the sugar. I’d never survive in that tent…

This went down a treat at work and they are already requesting biscuits for next week…